![]() The state of California issued a COVID-19 lockdown order, labeled “Safer at Home” on March 19, 2020. This was a retrospective observational, trauma registry-based study. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of the pandemic lockdown (“Safer at Home”) on injuries treated at a large, urban level 1 trauma center. In particular, motor vehicle collisions and sports-related injuries were reduced significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown. 4 Another study from Canada reported a decrease in injury-related emergency department visits during the COVID-19 pandemic in the pediatric population. The authors reported similar injuries in both periods but a decreased amount of sport and traffic-related traumas with respect to domestic traumas during the pandemic. A study from Italy analyzed hand and wrist trauma, comparing the period of February to March 2020 (during the pandemic) to the same time frame of the previous year. 3 The authors reported an overall reduction in the number and severity of trauma admissions. A recently published small study in New Zealand with a total of 195 patients compared two 14-day periods before and during the national lockdown for COVID-19. Little is known about changes in trauma epidemiology during the COVID-19 pandemic. The “lockdown” order, labeled “Safer at Home,” instructed Californians to stay at home, except for necessary travel to obtain food, prescriptions, health care, and commuting to jobs considered essential. The state of California issued the first statewide mandatory restrictions in the United States on March 19, 2020, to help contain the virus outbreak. Additional challenges included a shortage of blood components, a shift of surgeons to other areas, and the need to set up special operating rooms for COVID-19 positive patients. During the pandemic in northern Italy, another critical key-point emerged because of the massive overload of patients in the emergency departments. 1 The immediate concerns were related directly to the COVID-19 disease and the increasing pressure on intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital bed capacities. The World Health Organization declared a pandemic from the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) on March 11, 2020. ![]() Intensive care unit admission rates, mechanical ventilation, and intensive care unit length of stay were all reduced. Trauma deaths were reduced by 27.9%, and the crude overall mortality was significantly lower during the lockdown period (4.1% vs. During the lockdown, patients suffered less severe trauma, with Injury Severity Score of <9 ( p < 0.001), as well as less severe head ( p = 0.001) and severe chest trauma ( p < 0.001). Positive testing for substance use increased by 20.9%. ![]() The absolute number of gunshot wounds increased by 6.2% and knife injuries by 39.3%. ![]() There was an increase in ground level falls by 32.5%, especially in the elderly group. Following the lockdown, there was a reduction in the automobile versus pedestrian admissions by 42.5%, motorcycle injuries by 38.7%, and bicycle accidents by 28.4% but no significant effect on the number of motor vehicle accident admissions. There were 1,202 admissions during the lockdown period in 2020 and 1,143 during the same calendar period in 2019. ![]()
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